I went out today and shot some more groups to see the difference between regular and match primers. Today's test actually swayed more towards the regular primers as you will see. I believe my tests are probably not really as exact as they could be. My main drawback to testing this Remington 700 VS is that I only have a 6 power scope on it. This really makes it hard out to 300 yards to keep a constant hold.

As you can see, the match primers did fine at 100 yards. The regular primers were not too far off from the match. At 200 yards, the regular primers actually appear to have a better group. I think this is possibly due to barrel heat and only having the 6 power scope.

At 300 yards, both of my first shots from the match group and the regular group were touching. I thought this was pretty interesting. Then the match primers spread out to the left and the regular primers spread to the right. Hmmmmm.

I am going to go ahead and conclude at this time that my results are skewed and really prove nothing. I think that without a more powerful scope, I can not shoot out to the ranges that these bullets and this gun are capable of. My next big purchase will be a Leupold 6x20 50mm Long Range Tactical. When I get the new scope and get it on my gun again, we will try this again. I will let you know the results then. Please feel free to leave any comments and to give your 2 cents on why the regular primers seemed to do so well today. Thanks.

In a final note, I can say that everyone with a .308 should load up some of the Hornady 110 Gr. V-Max. I shot about 40 ground squirrels today from ranges of 30 yards to 200+ yards and they worked great. Once again, I anxiously await having a better scope as the capabilities of this gun are going to increase ten fold.

Very interesting groups. I agree that they prove nothing in particular about the difference the match primers make, but the interesting thing is that your groups get a lot better at the longer distances. At 100 yds you shot roughly .9 MOA, at 200 it was roughly .6 MOA and at 300 it was roughly .7 MOA! Hard to "blame" the scope for that. (I took the different picture sizes into account.)

If you really want to test the primers, I would suggest doing it with a blind test and at only one distance. Have a friend load the rifle without you knowing which loads you will be shooting. There is a psychological phenomenon where when you expect one thing to be better than another and you can influence it (more careful aiming, steadier hold, etc.), you subconsciously make it better whether it is or not. That might be an eye opener.

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